A couple of days ago, I made a variation of the pie using oil pastry. This is in fact, more or less, the original pie where I first made oil pastry on cheap family recipes, although we steamed it as a pudding there. When I made it it was evening, so I thought I would...

Stuffed peppers for tea this evening using two of the Aldi peppers. The feta has been in the fridge and had a best before date of October 2013. But because it was sealed in the packet, it is fine. Now I have opened it, I will have to use it up quite quickly. For 2,...

Did pizza this evening using some of the chicken. To be as fair as I could in the pricing of the chicken, I took the 454g of meat after we had had our roast lunch, and added an estimated 200g of meat for that. So a total of 654g of chicken meat divided by the £4.99...

A Rubber Chicken I mentioned recently that Allegra had inspired me to do a rubber chicken series. I expect most families who need to stretch the pennies have favourite rubber chicken methods and favourite ways to stretch minced beef. There is just me and Mike to feed...

Went to a pub, the Bottle House, very close to where I used to live yesterday for a 60th Birthday Celebration for one of my brothers. It was a lovely family ‘do’. I had started the day with a migraine that was probably kicked off by a late night on the Saturday. The...

Peperonata is one of those things that we have pretty often. It is a pepper and onion stew that goes with many things, can be used as a main dish or as a side. We first started having it with cheesey gougere, which is choux pastry. For two people you will need 2...

Went to see DD2 today, so, naturally, I had to have a look round Aldi at the end of her road. Got some good bargains that I will be working up dinners for over the next few days. Amongst other things, there are three peppers for 89p, peperonata, stuffed peppers and...

Did a nice dinner a couple of days ago after having a rummage. Found a pack of mixed deli meat in the freezer that I got from Morrisons. It was cheap I know otherwise I wouldn’t have got it to experiment with. But I had taken it out of the box to fit in the...

Nipped down to Eastbourne this morning to see DD1. Took down a couple of big pots to add to the three already there, and some compost, and we potted up the 5 little fruit trees that were her Christmas present. The plum is already covered in blossom and she should have...

Even more achey today, if aching muscles are anything to go by, I should have buns of steel by next week! More of the same as yesterday today. Cut down a very old pear tree that only produced a handful of inedible fruits. That made room to pull down the two water...

Really quite tired right now. Went to a good friends house last night for the evening and stayed up past my bedtime. I don’t know about you, but if I try to go to sleep straight away when I get in, I just lay there thinking about the day and what I have to do...

Other doings in the kitchen so far today include using up the hard leavings of a baquette and the last few slices from a value loaf. I sliced and chopped them into croutons, tossed them with some tandoori spice and a little oil, then cooked them in a pan until crispy....

Did a lovely risotto yesterday using some asparagus Mike brought home. Used up the last of the Arborio rice, so next time I do one, I’ll try the value rice and form an opinion on using it. Also this time, I used 2 tblsps of lemon juice from a bottle rather than...

This is part of an experiment I did a while ago and definitely one for the carnivores. Veggies, look away now. I went to one of the two excellent local butchers and ordered some ox cheeks and heart. Goodness, just dug out the receipt and it was 25th September 2013,...

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